Federal lawmakers were trying Monday to reach a spending agreement to avert a shutdown after midnight. In St. Louis, the most immediate effects would include the closure of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the Gateway Arch.

He was a long-time senator from the southwest Missouri town of Carthage, serving from 1963 until his death in 1990. One of my reporters at the time described Webster as an amateur actor and he certainly treated the Senate chamber like his personal stage.